She's 39 now and was 34 when he died. They had been partners for quite awhile. He just did a lot of wheeling and dealing behind her back and kept borrowing from local people and promising huge interest in return. When those loans came due he took the money from the store. That's when he would pull his suicide tirade and make her feel bad. She was way over her head the last several years but kept believing he would pull them out.

My dad died a few years before her dad and her dad owed him $50,000. My mom wrote it off. He promised my dad 15% interest over 5 years. He really lucked out on that debt. Although my brother weighed in on it my mom insisted to forgive the debt.

Anyway, the story has so many ins and outs I didn't do it justice in my short article and left too many questions unanswered.